The Fireworks in the Gutter
by Kimberly1565
Summary: A young boy is found in a gutter in Virginia. Someone is lying, and Booth and Bones are going to find out the truth. It may even lead to them discovering the truth about each other...
1. Chapter 1

**_*(This is my first attemt at a fanfic... Love it or hate it, let me know)*_**

That dreaded sound. It seemed entirely too early for her phone to be ringing. Slowly she turned over and looked at the caller ID.

"Brennan," she answered with a yawn. "Thanks Booth, I'll see you in a few." She looked at the clock which read 7:04. It seemed earlier than that. She thought about laying in bed for another minute, but eventually decided to get up and get dressed. No sooner had she finished getting dressed, Booth was knocking on the door.

"C'mon Bones, we got to go."

"I'm coming, no need to get pushy."

They got into the car, headed to the crime scene. About an hour later they were there in Berea, Virginia. It was a construction site on a small cul-de-sac known as Amber Ct., with about a dozen or so guys standing around now, waiting to hear what they were going to have to do.

Booth and Bones exited the vehicle and were immediately directed to the body. They looked where the construction team had removed the grate above the sewer and there it was. "What the… Is it human?"

Bones lowered herself down into the sewer, picking up one of the pieces. "Yeah, it's human. This is part of the skull. I'm not going to be able to tell anything else until we get all this back to the lab. Basically, everything that's here, the body, surrounding materials." Out of the corner of her eye, something looked odd. She picked up something else. "What is this?"

"Kind of looks like a firework… You don't think he died by fireworks, do you?"

"I don't know… There's a lot of them here. Lets get it all back to the lab."

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"Zack, start working on reconstructing the skull, and then start reconstructing the rest of the body. I'll be back in a few hours, I'm going with Booth to interview people in the area to find out if they had heard fireworks anytime recently. As soon as you have the skull reconstruction and tissue markers done, give it to Angela. Hodgins, I need you to find time of death." With that, the squints were off doing their jobs.

Back in the small Virginia town, they knocked on the door of the house where the sewer was. The woman was about 50 years old. She didn't provide a lot of help, since she hadn't heard any fireworks. They tried the next house, and got the same story. The next two houses said they had heard fireworks about two weeks ago, but thought nothing of it. They assumed that it was just some kids having fun. No one had noticed anything abnormal, which often seemed to be the case in these investigations.

Suddenly Brennan's phone rang. "Hey Angela."

"Sweetie, we got an ID for you. His name is Albert Threnton, 15 year old male. Reported Missing 15 days ago by his mother. The address is 413 Lynchester Drive."

"Alright, have you guys found cause of death yet?"

"Not yet, one sec."

Hodgins walked into the room. "You talking to Dr. Brennan? Tell her that the victim has been dead around 28 days."

Angela gave him a look of question. "Are you sure?" Hodgins nodded. "Alright, thanks Jack." Hodgins held her gaze for a few moments, before turning and leaving to get back to his bugs and slime.

"Hodgins just told me that our guy has been dead about 4 weeks, but he was only reported missing a little over 2 weeks ago."

"Is he sure?" Brennan had to ask, already knowing the answer was yes. "Why would the mom wait so long to report her son missing?"

"I don't know, sweetie, that's why you and Booth are out there, not me."

"Thanks Ang."

Bones turned herself to Booth, who was focusing on driving, firmly gripping the steering wheel, as if agitated. "We got an ID. 15 year old, dead for 4 weeks, reported missing for 2." With that, they were off the Victim's house.


	2. Chapter 2

"I can't believe this. AJ, we always called him that since he wasn't too keen on the name Albert, was such a nice boy, he was everything a mother could ever hope for. He had just become an Eagle scout, he volunteered on the weekends, never caused me any problems. Who would do something like this so my little boy?" Mrs. Threnton wiped a couple tears that had formed out of her eyes, looking for the partners for an answer.

"We don't know yet, but we will find out who did this. Why did you wait so long to report him missing?" Booth looked at the sobbing mother, and felt his own heart sink, thinking about his own son and how he would feel if something happened to Parker.

"I had no indication he had gone missing. He was supposed to go camping for 10 days with his friend Matt and his family. They got back 3 days late, and said that AJ never showed up, and didn't answer his phone, so they figured he had bailed." She paused for a moment to dry some of the tears that were now free flowing. "When Matt called asking to talk to AJ, I knew something was wrong. I immediately called the police and filed the missing persons report." Mrs. Threnton paused again, trying to regain composure. "What happened to my AJ? Where was he found?"

"A construction crew found him this morning… In a sewer." The words stung as they came out of Booth's mouth. So many times he had seen death, but it was still hard to tell another parent that their child died a gruesome death.

"Mrs. Threnton, did Albert… err, AJ, have any enemies?" Brennan asked, tired of waiting for Booth to ask the questions they needed to know.

"None that I was aware of. Why do you ask?"

"Well he's dead, he was found in a sewer, and his body was exploded over and over by fireworks."

"Fireworks?"

"Yeah." Booth said before Bones could upset the distraught mother again. "Did AJ have any friends living on Amber Court?"

"Mmm, yeah. Two. Trent and Brent. Those two are best friends, but as of late AJ was spending a lot of time with Brent. Brent is a nice boy, good student. Trent on the other hand… Bad student, tends to get himself in trouble. Couple marijuana charges on his record, also breaking and entering if I remember right. That one might have gotten dropped though."

"I think that's enough for now. We'll call or stop by if we need anything else. C'mon Bones, we have a couple of teenage boys to talk to." They headed back to Amber Ct, to talk to Brent and Trent.


	3. Chapter 3

They pulled back on the street, and saw a few kids throwing around a football, carefully avoiding the area that was now a crime scene. They watched for a second, and then got out of the SUV.

"We're looking for Brent Addison and Trent Jones." The agent announced. One of the boys took off running, making it about 50 yards before being tackled to the ground by a very strong Agent Booth.

"Trent! I told you to stop running from cops! It only makes you look guilty." Brent said. "I'm Brent by the way, and that guy your friend knocked to the ground is Trent. Can I help you with something?"

"You guys were friends with Albert Threnton?" Bones asked the two.

Brent again replied, "Yeah, but we haven't seen him in awhile. What he'd do this time?"

"What do you mean this time?" Agent Booth questioned.

"He's been getting himself in lots of trouble with the cops lately. I think it has to do with his dad just up and ditching the family. He never really talked about it, but that happened like a year ago and since, he's been getting himself in with the wrong crowd. I was trying to straighten him out but obviously if you're talking to me, it didn't work."

"What kind of trouble was he into?"

"Oh you know, gambling, weed, alcohol, sex… The usual trouble. He usually was able to talk his way out of most of his problems though, except Katie." The friend replied to the agent, who was now questioning everything the mother had said. Did she know?

"Katie? Who's Katie?"

"Katie is the girl AJ was seeing… Well one of them at least. She dropped out of college for AJ, unaware that he was screwing like 4 other girls behind her back. She's pregnant, and says it's AJ's. She was a virgin before him so I think it really is his. He tried saying she was a slut, but she ain't. She's the daughter of a preacher or something like that."

"Do you have the names of the other girls that he was sexually active with?" Dr. Brennan asked.

"Most were one night stands. He'd brag about how many girls he's been with now. He was a virgin 9 months ago, and is now up to 34 women, last I knew. At least that's what he claims."

"Did he use protection?"

"Why are you asking me? I wasn't having sex with him! You could ask Rachael. She dated him for 3 weeks or so and they broke up about a month ago, before she found out about the other women. We're dating now, and she told me that AJ was her first. She's so ashamed that she let AJ get away with that. Her family is out of town right now, but she lives right over there." Brent pointed to a large off-white house with green shutters.

"As for you Trent, why'd you run?" Agent Booth was staring down the teenager.

"I don't have to tell you anything!"

"I could just take you into custody…"

"FINE! I thought this was about something else. My ex is claiming that I raped her and got her pregnant, I thought you guys were going to arrest me for raping her."

"Did you?"

"You serious? Of course not! I love her. She broke up with me when she found out about the baby. Then she started lying to everyone. No one ever listens to the guy because some guys do rape their girlfriends. I'm just not one of them."

"You can go then."

As they got back into the SUV, Bones couldn't resist to turn this into a matter of science. "Biologically, AJ could be seen as a very fit individual, especially if he got several pregnant. That's what natural selection is based on, reproduction. Maybe his friends were jealous of how many girls he got to have sex with?"

"Or maybe one of his 'girlfriends' got sick of the cheating and took care of him." Booth retorted. Bones glared at him. "So bones, it's getting kind of late, you want to go grab a couple beers and something to eat?"

"Sure, but how are we going to get back to DC if we're going to drink? It's already 10 o'clock, we _could_ spend the night here, if you want.

Booth thought for a moment… _alcohol, food, bones, hotel…_ "Yeah, sure. Lets go find a hotel, you can rent a room and I'll rent a room. Then we can go eat and drink and be merry."

They arrived at the only non-cockroach infested hotel in town. "Any vacancies?" Bones asked the clerk. The clerk did not look excited to be there.

"Yeah. We got 1 room left. It's a single king size bed. Is that alright."

"Is there a couch in the room?" Bones asked.

"Loveseat, but yeah." The clerk mundanely said.

Booth was getting ready to tell Bones that they could head back to D.C. or he could sleep in the car. Before he could, Bones told the clerk that they'd take it. The clerk handed her the keys and showed them to their room.


End file.
